For many early childhood places, “It’s Play Time” would probably mean something along the lines of “free play…again” a regular morning or afternoon activity. At the Garden School, Play Time is one of two times during the school year when we suspend our regular academics, and get the whole school together to do a real live play! That’s because the play offers more kindergarten activities and requirements than almost anything else we do.
The play offers children a cohesive activity that encourages memorization, public delivery, make believe and interpretation, group participation and dependence, invention, creativity, personality development, understanding, patience, kindness, and a real sense of self…
The play is written, the play is cast, the play is copied, and scripts are sent home…and then we start to practice. It’s not always easy for children doing this the first time. If the director tells a child to speak up…and say a line with gusto…that child might emotionally crash and the tiny mouse voice emerges in a cruel monotone…fear has struck the heart of the child…self preservation is taking the driver’s seat. One child came on stage, saw the audience and uttered a “oh crap,” and ran for his life. Needless to say he got a HUGE ovation.
How do you coax hesitant three year olds into saying lines? If they trust you, if you taught them to love the water last summer, if they went miles and miles with you on a school bus… if they have gotten enough praise in the classroom…they might believe you…they might take a chance…and little by little the balance of trust brings them out, and they do it, laugh and then love it.
This year, we have a new curtain back drop system to work with. One of our beloved families came to school on Saturday and put up the new IKEA ceiling curtain rod that will allow us to have four working backdrops, and the ability to close the curtain to change the set….needless to say I am very grateful and very excited all at the same time. We will now have the luxury of opening the curtain while our little actresses and actors are already on stage…
Working at the play takes the whole crew. Nobody has the luxury of slacking off. The director and co-director are busy with those who are acting, and it’s the job of the other faculty to keep the rest of the school occupied while the play is being practiced…this is no easy task. It takes a lot of work just to keep thirty-five children occupied and quiet so that we can hear the actors.
And why is all this work necessary? It’s not necessary…It’s desirable, it’s possible, it’s doable, and the children love it if the faculty works together to provide the activity as something fun to do. It’s fun because we are all making something of value to be shared with those we love. It would be a lot easier not to do the plays and not to work as hard as we do to put on the huge show that it is. It would be a lot easier to just have “free play” and stand in a corner and watch chaos ensue. But that’s not what the Garden School is about. We are in the business of “possibilities” and doing. We are in the process of learning, and learning never comes easily or by standing back…It doesn’t come by letting someone else, some other place, some other time.
The creation of a play is something children will not have the privilege of doing again until high school. It is in the preschool years that formation creates the framework, the interests of the child. It is here that he determines what he is going to spend his life doing. If that is missed, then he might go straight through school never knowing what he wants to do. Catch a child’s interest before he is six, and that interest will stay with him forever.
A play is a work of art, a living thing that can only be when everyone does their job. It’s a friend maker, a moral booster, a time when the shy find a voice, the lonely find friends, the left behind take a big front row place of importance. It’s a time when the younger children show their talents for the first time and make everyone think they hung all the stars in the universe. It’s a time when the old timer kids really shine, really excel, really find not only a voice but a sense of personhood way beyond what a five or six year old usually has the opportunity to experience.
The plays terrify me as the writer and producer and this year, director. Its whole production seems to be on my shoulders…this year I am promising myself that the new curtain arrangement will make it all easier, and that the play is cute and the costumes are gorgeous, and the lines will be expertly delivered by a host of wonderful little talented artists…
So tomorrow it starts…I’ll report back later and tell you how it all worked out…lol. And once again a big thanks to Collin’s grandparents for putting up the curtain rod.